Fa-Jun Nan and co-worker at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have recently published in Tetrahedron Letters on their progress towards chlorahololide A. An interesting structure in their route can be found in a Grignard addition of an bromo-magnesium bromo vinyl group that adds onto an aldehyde to ultimately form a bromo-butenolide.

Exiguolide, a macrolide that specifically inhibits gamete fertilization of sea urchins but not the embryogenesis of the fertilized egg, was synthesized by Haruhiko Fuwa and co-workers at Tohoku University.